John Clay Coleman

Rev. John Clay (J.C.) Coleman was an American–Canadian minister, theologian, and black rights activist. Born to freed slaves in Durant, Holmes Co., Mississippi. He travelled to Canada seeking Christian ordination, and was ordained by the African Methodist-Episcopal Church. Coleman was accepted as the "first coloured student" at Victoria University, Toronto, Canada. In 1898 he published a book titled The Jim Crow Car: Denouncement of Injustice Meted Out to the Black Race, condemning the racial atrocities of the American South.

Biography Coleman was one of seven children born in 1871 to Peter Coleman and Rowena Harrington, both of whom had been slaves on Tome Bigbee River, Alabama before being sold to a plantation owner in Mississippi.

He was raised in a Methodist Christian family, passionate about scripture and the education of youth.

Career Coleman was ordained by Bishop H. M. Turner in 1895 at the Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church, before enrolling as a divinity student at Victoria College, Toronto.

He vocally condemned racial segregation in the American south, writing and preaching on the subject in the US and Canada. Coleman contributed extensively to the efforts of the Methodist Church and held administrative positions of authority, notably:

Presiding Elder and General Superintendent of the A.M.E. Church in the Maritime Provinces of Canada An article in The Buffalo News from 1899 described the book as a "protest against the treatment of the colored man in the South, especially on railways, where he is compelled to sit in a car set apart for his use".